The Hidden Link Between E-Readers and Sheep (It’s Not What You Think)

Kindle DX Promotional Photo from Amazon.com

It’s easy to figure out why e-readers and tablets are the size that they are: They’re all about the size of paperback books, whether trade (iPad) or mass-market (the Kindle 3). Some oversized models, like the Kindle DX, are closer to big hardcovers. But why are books the size that they are? It turns out it’s because of sheep. Sheepskin, to be exact.

Carl Pyrdum, who writes the blog Get Medieval while he finishes his PhD in Literature at Yale, has the skinny on book sizes. You see, before Europeans learned how to ...

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